YOUNG audience members at the forthcoming Woking Youth Theatre production will have the chance to have one month’s free membership of the group.

There are 11 free places on offer at WYT for anyone aged between 14 and 21 who has a ticket for Bugsy Malone at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre in Woking from Wednesday to Saturday this week.

The musical is a stage version of the 1976 Alan Parker film starring Scott Baio and Jodie Foster and featuring Dexter Fletcher and Bonnie Langford.

It is a spoof gangster story loosely based on the underworld in Prohibition-era New York and Chicago.

The cast on film and stage are children and teenagers portraying adults with shoot-outs in which machine guns fire blobs of whipped cream instead of bullets and rival gangsters are “whacked” with custard pies.

The WYT show will feature a female Bugsy (Lettie Hazelton), Ryan Knight as Fat Sam and Rhiannon Kitchener as Tallulah.

There will be an eight-piece band and the show is being directed by WYT chairman Bruce Hazelton.

Bruce is one of the 60 original WYT members who revived the group in March 2019.

It was founded in 1983 by David Hawksworth, who was also chairman of Woking Drama Association for more than 15 years and almost single-handedly saved the Rhoda McGaw Theatre from closing.

It produced several actors who went on to great success on stage and screen, including Anna Wilson Jones (Victoria), Dermot Keaney (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3), Victoria Hamilton (The Crown, Doctor Foster), Sam Underwood (Homeland), and Abbie Osmon (We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia!).

The group won awards at drama festivals, including second place in the National Youth Finals in 1992. It folded in 2005 when David became ill. He died in 2015.

Three months after its revival, Woking Youth Theatre staged the musical Little Shop of Horrors and had two entries in the 2019 Woking Drama Festival.

It devised pop-up theatre performances for Party in the Park and produced a short film acted and crewed entirely by members.

The pandemic forced WYT’s planned second musical, The Wedding Singer, to be cancelled three weeks from curtain up.

“So they are thrilled to be back on stage with this cracking production,” Bruce said.

He said the show will be staged rather than having a full set but that some of the larger props have been expensive.

“This inclusive theatre group draws together young people from a wide range of local schools and colleges.

“It encourages collaboration between members of all ages with the younger cast learning from the more experienced, older performers. “Audiences are really in for a treat with this fantastically fun show which has some surprises up its sleeve.”

* Tickets are available via Rhoda McGaw Theatre – visit www.atgtickets.com/shows/bugsy-malone/rhoda-mcgaw-theatre-woking/